Molten alkali metal oxonitrates, a liquid state for nanosized perovskite phase elaboration

Abstract

Alkali metal nitrates or nitrites have rather low melting points and provide a powerful liquid medium for the precipitation of metal oxides from their common salts. Oxonitrate anions are Lux-Flood bases; the basicity can be chosen between nitrate or nitrite depending on the acidity of the metal cation or the kind of oxide desired. Once the experimental conditions are determined, generally by using TGA, one can obtain phases such as BaTiO ₃ , PbTiO ₃ or LaMnO ₃ quickly and reproducibly. Elementary particles, single crystals about 100 nm in size, form rather soft aggregates of approximately 2 µm. The purity is suitable for most applications.